Facebook losing users

Facebook has to deal with a mass exodus of users who are no longer interested in giving up all their personal data so that they can be inundated with pictures of cute cats, conspiracy theories and US gun lobby propaganda.

While the company is expected to report that its revenues are up, it might also have to tell shareholders that its expansion in the US, UK and other major European countries has peaked. In the last month, the world's largest social network has lost 6 million US visitors, a 4 per cent fall, according to analysis firm SocialBakers.

In the UK, 1.4m fewer users checked in last month, a fall of 4.5 per cent. In the last six months, Facebook has lost nearly 9million monthly visitors in the US and 2 million in the UK. It seems that these new users are not being replaced. Users are also switching off in Canada, Spain, France, Germany and Japan.

Like Catholicism, Facebook is being saved by growing fast in South America: monthly visitors in Brazil were up 6 per cent in the last month to 70 million.